Appalachian States Worst For Health And Happiness

America's Sadness Belt

Gallup and Healthways recently released their annual Well-Being Index for 2012. In the heyday, you had to walk in the street, the sidewalks were so packed with people going out to dinner or shopping or to the movies; now they're ghost towns. Geonomics could fix it, tho'. This 2013 excerpt is from Appalachian Voice, Mar 25.

by Melanie Foley

Appalachia was found once again to be home to some of the least healthy and happy Americans. The most striking result of last year’s Well-Being Index is that while the happiest states are spread throughout the country, the lowest ranking states are all clustered in Central and Southern Appalachia, and the region’s neighboring states.

West Virginia (50) and Kentucky (49) once again brought up the rear as the saddest two states for the fourth year in a row. Tennessee slid down a few pegs from its spot last year, joining its fellow Appalachian states at number 47.

Who’s number one? It’s Hawaii. Who changed the most since last year? Alaska took a turn for the worse, and Delaware improved significantly. How did my state do? You can find out here.

JJS: In Appalachia, people have a saying, "Why is the land so rich and we're so poor?"

The answer is obvious: their local economy leaks out its local values. All the spending that Americans do for natural resources such as coal, most of that torrent of money flows into the pockets of owners and investors who live anywhere but in Appalachia, only very little of that streams arrives in the pockets of and miners and other folk in the hill country.

Of course, it's easy to fix that: just get local governments to charge full-market annual-rental value for the land and resources (their values as if untouched). Indeed, over in Norway, the national government gets about 80% of the world price for a barrel of oil.

In Tanzania, the government not only already recovers socially-generated land rent but recently raised its fees and dues closer to actual market value. Its new Schedule increases the land rent for all plots with letters of offer or certificates of title in most cases by 300% per square metre or more. How new land rents in urban areas impact on plots in The Citizen, Mar 26 by Eve Hawa Sinare.

Usually it's quite hard to get government to do what's right -- which is all the more reason for you to constantly articulate our right to a fair share of Earth's worth.

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Editor Jeffery J. Smith runs the Forum on Geonomics and helped prepare a course for the UN on geonomics. To take the “Land Rights” course, click here .